(i) Field to Which the Invention Relates
The present invention is with respect to ambulances having stretcher support stages placed one over the other and next to one side wall of the ambulance.
(ii) The Prior Art
An ambulance designed on these lines, that is to say with two stretcher stages placed one over the other next to the side walls, is seen in French Pat. No. 1,098,159. The separate stretcher stages are unmovingly fixed to the side walls of the ambulance by way of brackets. However, they may be folded upwards so as to be resting against the side walls. In the case of this design, no change in the height of the stages for loading and unloading stretchers and no change in the angle of the stages (for example so that the head or foot end of a stretcher is lowermost) is possible. Furthermore, the distance between the door posts has to be the same as the breadth of the space inside the ambulance to make it possible for the stretchers to be loaded and unloaded.
An ambulance with two stretcher support stages placed one over the other next to one side wall of the ambulance is to be seen in German Offenlegungsschrift specification No. 2,620,939, in which case the stretchers are supported by horizontal brackets fixed to posts which, in turn, are fixed to the rest of the structure of the ambulance. For loading and unloading, the top stretcher stage is supported on guide rails, which may be telescoped and so pulled outwards, while their inner ends are turningly supported on the front, fixed bracket. The loading end of the stage may be swung outwards using a turning lever system and, on doing this, lowered. Height adjustment of the separate stretcher stages is not possible in the case of this earlier design. Furthermore, the turning lever system for the upper stretcher stage is generally complex.